NEW YORK — It has slowly become evident in recent days that the Flyers should try their mightiest to trade a little forward scoring for a lot of back-end help.

With Andrej Meszaros constantly injured, sick or both, the club’s defensive depth is always at issue, and its strength at the point on the power play is a major question mark.

While the Flyers’ power play continues to limp along because of their streaking forwards, their lack of defensive depth was really exposed Tuesday night in what became a 4-2 loss to the Rangers at Madison Square Garden.

Ryan Callahan and Rick Nash led the way for the Rangers with a pair of goals each. The Flyers countered early with a pair of power play goals, by hot shooters Wayne Simmonds and Jakub Voracek, respectively. But that was before the Flyers’ defense crumbled underneath them.

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What caused the chaos was a lower body injury to Nick Grossmann that ended his night after one period. Grossmann is having a terrific season, and entering the game led the NHL in blocked shots.

Now they may have to do without him for a while, and the consequences of that were clearly on display last night in a final, brutal period for the Flyers.

The Rangers, lulled to sleep during much of the first two periods, really came alive in the third when they realized it was easy to gain the Flyers’ defensive zone. Capping that was a decision by Ilya Bryzgalov to not attack onrushing Ranger skaters, leaving the skilled Callahan and Nash to beat him ... and thereby extending the Flyers’ losing streak at the Garden to six.

So the Flyers (11-12-1) fumbled away their long-sought .500 medal, and also their footing in the Eastern Conference’s (not-so) Elite Eight standings dance.

The Rangers (11-8-2) did lose defender Marc Staal, who goes without a face shield and was lucky that a deflected puck hit him just below his eye instead of on it.

The Flyers are dealing with their own lack of protection issues, and as a result might want to ask Meszaros how he feels. They could also talk about the possibility of making a waiver claim on veteran defender Roman Hamrlik, who was exposed Tuesday by a Washington Capitals team already in selling mode.

Fiery Rangers captain Callahan had two goals in the first period. Or, as he termed it in a between-periods interview, “two lucky ones.”

The Flyers helped make his luck.

For starters, Kimmo Timonen took a necessary penalty outside of Bryzgalov’s crease all of 69 seconds into the game. Then Braydon Coburn failed to clear a puck out of the defensive zone. Marian Gaborik got it to Derek Stepan, who found Callahan all alone in front of Bryzgalov and it was be 1-zip 1:30 into the game.

That done, the Flyers finally got ready to start the game. They began limiting the Rangers routes through the neutral zone and induced New York to play loose and undisciplined.

Then again on the power play, Simmonds worked the puck to Jakub Voracek, who was left alone to plant his own rebound behind Henrik Lundqvist at 17:08 of the period for a 2-1 Flyers lead.

They tried to pad it after that, and at the very least should have carried a big edge in momentum into the intermission.

Instead, a turnover at center ice gave Ryan McDonough the puck and he sprung Callahan on a charge down the left side. Luke Schenn tried to do a belly slide defensive maneuver but badly mis-timed it, and Callahan veered easily around Schenn, cut to the right and jammed the puck past a backsliding Bryzgalov for 2-2.

That gave Callahan 15 goals in 30 career goals against the Flyers. His latest masterpiece goal, coming with just 41 seconds left on the clock, changed the course of the game.

The teams stutter-skated through a lifeless second period, but the Rangers wasted little time in the third regaining the lead. This time it was Dan Girardi firing a pass off the sideboards and thereby springing Rick Nash on a charge down the right side, he gained leverage room on Luke Schenn and fired a shot from the circle that beat Bryzgalov under his stick arm at 2:50 for a 3-2 New York lead.

Nash, the heralded offseason acquisition on Broadway, then produced a flashier encore.

Nash dashed around Timonen, deked and froze Bryzgalov and tucked the puck in at the 11:42 mark for a 4-2 lead. Nash has seven goals for the Rangers this season. All of them came during third periods.